Indian architects studying abroad, came back to India, with an optimistic, free from the British rule, eager to offer their much-needed services to a newly free country. A few of whom are Habib Rahman, Achyut Kanvinde, Gautam Sarabhai and Charles Correa, with them came the influence of Bauhaus. As India had no uniform independent architectural movement in the early 20th century, ideas influenced by the Bauhaus and architects like Le Corbusier brought to India were modern. They were then influenced by both regional and interesting ideas. Modernism in India at that time was more like an overall approach to life. Modernist architects believed modern architecture was a medium of improving the lives of people. It meant designing the world positively,
Nehru called Chandigarh ‘the temple of the new India’. The city of Chandigarh was disliked by many, Nehru's response to this was, “It is totally immaterial whether you like it or not, it is the biggest thing because it makes you think. You may squirm at the impact, but it makes you think and imbibe new ideas.” Chandīgarh was an experiment, it had a creative approach to the concept of a township. Chandīgarh, today, is one of the famous towns in India and is known because of its architecture. Corbusier thinks of space in terms of light, air, earth, water and the users of the space, not by the normal rules and
They believed that the culture and traditions of Indian architecture shouldn’t be lost. Their buildings were in relation to the context of the site and their inspiration was local too. Vernacular architecture is concerned with building and construction methods. The architects who were practising vernacular architecture in India, their aim was to provide low budget housing using local material, labour and building techniques. Nari Gandhi, Rupal desi, the Kamath's etc. were few architects who practised vernacular architecture. Architects like Nari Gandhi worked like a mistri, giving instructions to the craftsmen on site and making changes. As the materials and the building techniques were local the craftsmen were familiar with the material and a lot was left up to the craftsmen to decide. A lot of these buildings include natural lighting and passive ways of cooling or
What makes modern architecture? Before answering this, one would need to understand what the term “modern” exactly describes. In architecture, modernism is the movement or transition from one period to another, and it is caused by cultural, territorial, and technological changes happening in the world. In Kenneth Frampton’s Modern Architecture: A Critical History, he details these three major societal changes that impact and create modern architecture.
The Chinese-American architect Ieoh Ming Pei (I.M) is known as one of the greatest architects of the Twentieth Century. His long, brilliant career was highlighted by several internationally famous structures. While many of Pei’s buildings were generally accepted by the public, some of them precipitated fair amounts of controversy. The most notable of these controversial structures is his Glass Pyramid at the entrance of the Louvre in Paris. For these reasons, I.M. Pei seems to be an architect who exhibits interest in the avant-garde through both the creative design and aestheticism of his architecture.
Nearly every aspect of life was redefined in the mid nineteenth century during the industrial revolution. Fundamental changes occurred in agriculture, textile and metal manufacture, transportation, economic policies and the social structure. Yet somehow architecture did not catch the bug, buildings still reflected the past with their stately capitals, columns, and other unnecessary fluff. This matter puzzled the young artist Le Corbusier; he believed that “we should make a machine for living”, and our buildings should reflect this newfound consciousness that has been adopted in the rest of our society. These ideas were the catalyst of an architectural revolution. Le Corbusier led the way in a movement that strove to bring architecture to the technological age, while still respecting the revered geometric proportions of the past and the beauty in simplicity.
It was the foundation for other art and architecture styles like Futurism, Constructivism, and Suprematism. Cubism was the new way of modern art, in respect to the evolving world around them. This was a time of new technologies like photography, increased industrialization and motor cars. All which caused people to adapt to there new surroundings. Cubism was the starting point of a whole new approach to change and views of individuals. The movement wasn’t primarily architecture but also a new approach to art pieces and sculptures. An example of Cubism was by the architect Josef Chocol, who designed the Apartment House, Bohemia in 1913-1914. The apartment house resembles cubism because of the appearance of the structure as if alive. It’s designed to show movement and form. The building shows folds as abstract forming. The pediment and how its placed over the windows and doorways. He also uses geometric patterns throughout the building to enforce an appearance as if the building has life. The apartments form follows its function is a new approach to architecture at this time and resembles Picasso’s art
As a critics and historian, von Moos concentrated on the description and analysis of different buildings by Le Corbusier. The text focuses more on the political architectures like the plan designed for The League of Nations, the UNESCO Headquarters, the Ronchamp Commission, and the Capitol Complex in Chandigarh. These government buildings reveal an idea of open space and space-time that expressed by Le Corbusier, which offers the readers a complete understanding of his work and belief. von Moos’s purpose on this part of writing is to interpret public building, especially designed by Le Corbusier. He also mentioned the political factors that caused the fail of Le Corbusier’s plan, which also led the absence of many other great buildings in the history of modern architecture. Although von Moos’s writing is a comprehensive illustration of the famous building and plan of Le Corbusier, it lacks an account of the great architect’s life, compared with the previous three texts mentioned above. Sigfried Giedion’s writing, Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition, in contrast, well combined both Le Corbusier’s life experience and the analysis of his architecture
The essence of modern architecture lays in a remarkable strives to reconcile the core principles of architectural design with rapid technological advancement and the modernization of society. However, it took “the form of numerous movements, schools of design, and architectural styles, some in tension with one another, and often equally defying such classification, to establish modernism as a distinctive architectural movement” (Robinson and Foell). Although, the narrower concept of modernism in architecture is broadly characterized by simplification of form and subtraction of ornament from the structure and theme of the building, meaning that the result of design should derive directly from its purpose; the visual expression of the structure, particularly the visual importance of the horizontal and vertical lines typical for the International Style modernism, the use of industrially-produced materials and adaptation of the machine aesthetic, as well as the truth to materials concept, meaning that the true nat...
In the process of development of human society, architecture and culture are inseparable. Cuthbert (1985) indicates that architecture, with its unique art form, expresses the level of human culture in different historical stages, as well as the yearning towards the future. According to his article, it can be said that architecture has become one of the physical means for human to change the world and to conquer the nature. Consequently, architecture has been an important component of human civilization. Since 1980s when China started the opening and reforming policy, a variety of architectural ideas, schools and styles have sprung up. Accompanying with a momentum of...
Norman Foster is a British architect who was born in Manchester in 1935. He graduated from University School of Architecture (Manchester) in 1961 and won a scholarship to study Master’s Degree in Architecture at Yale University. Later in 1967 he teamed up with 4 other peers and established a practice called Foster + Partners which was founded in London and is now one of the most well-known international design practices.
With the interaction between the development of computational approaches in architecture and the contemporary forms of spatial design intelligence, some new architectural design theories emerged to make differences between architects and control designing processes. These theories are almost employed in all designing realms, from architecture to urban design to provide fields of ideas and solutions that privilege by complexity. Most of these theories are oriented to relay on understanding and using computational methods to generate exotic and complex geometries. In this respect, three of these theories will discussed and tested against three buildings. The theories are: parametric design, genetic architecture and emergence, which characterize some of the contemporary architectural design approaches.
Abstract: Contemporary architects have a wide variety of sources to gain inspiration from, but this has not always been the case. How did modernism effect sources of inspiration? What did post-modernism do to liberate the choice of influences? Now that Contemporary architects have the freedom of choice, how are they using “traditional” styles and materials to inspire them? Even after modernism why are traditional styles still around?
Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier are two very prominent names in the field of architecture. Both architects had different ideas concerning the relationship between humans and the environment. Their architectural styles were a reflection of how each could facilitate the person and the physical environment. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House, is considered one of the most important buildings in the history of American architecture and Le Corbusier s Villa Savoye helped define the progression that modern architecture was to take in the 20th Century. Both men are very fascinating and have strongly influenced my personal taste for modern architecture. Although Wright and Corbusier each had different views on how to design a house, they also had similar beliefs. This paper is a comparison of Frank Lloyd Wright‘s and Le Corbusier ‘s viewpoints exhibited through their two prominent houses, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House and Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye.
Buildings reflect the values and ideas of society within periods. The role of architecture in shaping society and vice versa largely depends on the period in question and who or what affects first. The Enlightenment, and the subsequent period the Post-Enlightenment, reflect the biggest change for current ideas regarding architecture and society and current theories. At the same time, individual identities and understanding of society, progress and truth all follow a similar evolving path. It is during this dramatic shift in thinking that the role of architecture to society and the idea of progress and truth becomes a more complex relationship. How this relationship works and its implications is based on the theory that there is a direct link between the two. One cannot develop without the other. Who leads whom and to what extent they influence each other is evident in architectural trends and pioneering works by architects such as Robert Venturi, Frank Gehry amongst others.
The book as a description of modern architecture, its styles and influence succeeds but falls short as a prescriptive methodology. His work is still recalled for the need by modernists to categorize everything into neat little boxes, not necessarily for the sake of uniformity, but for sake of some ambiguity. The ambiguity may be the triumph of this book as post modern architecture era is supposed to create more questions than the answers.
...t known as Union Territory Chandigarh, which became India’s first planned city. In this Le Corbusier designed administration buildings, a university, courthouse and parliament building.
Recent years have been challenging for the whole country and particularly for the construction sector and the architectural profession. Challenging times do however, afford the opportunity for reflection and debate about what is provided and delivered by the architectural profession.